BY KOLADE LAREWAJU
ABEOKUTA – THE Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, Ogun State Council, has issued a 7-day ultimatum to the Ogun State House of Assembly to rescind its decision barring non-government media from covering the activities of the House.

The aggrieved journalists who yesterday boycotted a briefing by the Speaker, Hon. Suraj Adekunbi, threatened legal action should the House fail to withdraw the ban within the time frame.

A statement by the Chairman and Secretary of the Union, Mr. Tunde Sodeke and Wole Shokunbi, respectively, condemned the decision on private media

The House had on Tuesday barred private media Journalists from covering its plenary session, following the recommendation of a committee it set up to look into the circumstances surrounding the discovering of explosives in Assembly building on June 6, 2011.

The Speaker accepted the recommendation without taking contributions from members of the House.

According to the Statement, “The Union frowned at the resolution barring journalists adopted by the House in its plenary sitting of Tuesday, 5th July, 2011.”

The interpretation of the resolution is anoutright indictment on journalists in the state and an infringement on the fundamental human rights on the citizen.

“The decision of the House is against the freedom of information act which of course, is a National law. It should however be noted that the coverage of the proceedings in the National and State Assemblies is not at the discretion of the leadership of the House but the right of every citizen to know what is happening in the assembly.”

Reacting to the ban, a Peoples’ Democratic Party, PDP, Chieftain, Mr Segun Sowunmi, described the resolution as “anti-democratic” and said, “The business of the legislature is too critical a business for it to bar journalists from its proceedings.”